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When I was 16, I entered a Young Film Critics contest run by Belfast's Queen's Film Theatre. I was one of two runners-up in the schools competition and the both of us had reviewed Roland Joffe's Jesuits in the jungle drama 'The Mission'. My prize was a film on VHS video for my school and a trip to the Dublin set of the Channel 4 miniseries of Maeve Binchy's 'Echoes'. My fellow runner-up and I also went to a Dublin Film Festival screening of the Coen Brothers' 'Raising Arizona' with the QFT's Michael Open and an Italian embassy reception in honour of the director Francesco Rosi where we met Ken Russell. The winner of the competition, however, reviewed Martin Scorsese's comedy 'After Hours' and Alan Parker was the judge. Unable to attend the event announcing the winners, Parker sent a typically tongue in cheek message to us all, commending us on our reviews but explaining that the reason the rest of us didn't take the top pr

  As 'The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty' came to the end of its three episode run, the Belfast journalist Keith Baker amusingly tweeted: "That Murdoch series was quite something. Was it based on 'Succession'?" It is a spot on observation. Fans of the Emmy nominated HBO drama have always noted similarities between the fictional Roy family and the Murdochs. However, while watching the three part BBC2 documentary series 'The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty', they will find themselves taking many mental notes. While 'Succession' is a well written, impeccably researched and terrifically acted, it is still a TV drama. 'The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty' is a different proposition as it is peppered with the uncomfortable reality that the events it depicts actually did happen. Allies and admirers of the Aussie media magnate Rupert Murdoch will dismiss the programme as a BBC hatchet job. But others will see the show as proof of just how corrosive Murdoc

When the threat from Coronavirus eventually recedes, it will be fascinating to look back on the art, music, film, theatre and television that emerged during and after lockdown. As the world has dramatically adjusted to the presence of Covid-19, not only has it posed a major threat to lives but also to livelihoods. In the creative sector, the shutting down and gradual reopening of film sets, theatres, cinemas and live music venues has posed huge problems for performers and technical crew - financially and mentally. At the very top, many celebrities have sought to ease the boredom by harnessing technology to entertain the masses direct from their homes. Through shows like 'The One World' concert, 'Comic Relief' and across various chat shows, audiences have been given glimpses of the living rooms of celebrities like The Rolling Stones, Jon Stewart, Saoirse Ronan or the stars of ' Normal People ' while they ply their trade. Other stars like Chris Martin, Gary Lightb

When President Trump  announced in June 2018  the setting up of a new US military unit called Space Force, it was hard to take it seriously. It sounded like a bad Hollywood sci-fi parody and you half expected "from the creators of Police Squad!' to be added to the title or Leslie  Nielsen to appear on a poster promoting it. To make matters worse, when the President unveiled the new logo for his big idea during his impeachment trial in January,  it looked awfully like the logo from 'Star Trek' . Trump's Space Force dream was waiting to be satirised and Netflix stepped into that breach, commissioning a 10 episode series from Steve Carell and Greg Daniels, his collaborator on the US version of 'The Office'. As the series prepared for its launch in May, expectations were sky high. As the world wrestled with the grim reality of Coronavirus, we all wanted a good comedy to lift our spirits.  Carell was cast as General Mark R Naird, the first commander of the ficti

Every now and again, television unearths a unique talent who takes audiences into the experiences of communities they know very little about. America in recent decades has given us David Chase, David Simon, Vince Gilligan, Gillian Flynn and Marti Noxon. But Britain has also been good at discovering new voices, with Jimmy McGovern, Russell T Davies, Ricky Gervais, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Lisa McGee bringing stories about hitherto ignored communities to the fore. 2020 has seen the emergence of two exciting new voices. In the spring, audiences on both sides of the Atlantic were gripped by Sally Rooney's intense rural Irish romance ' Normal People '. But the summer has brought another impressive voice, London performer Michaela Coel. Coel is an actor, writer, singer, songwriter and director of Ghanian heritage from Hackney and Tower Hamlets, who first came to people's attention with the 2015 E4 sitcom 'Chewing Gum' about a shop assistant from a strict religious upb